In modern poultry husbandry operations, the concept of maintaining chickens or other birds in cages arraved in rows inside poultry houses is becoming increasingly popular. In many cage houses, the cages are arrayed in rows along the length of the house, and each cage contains a number of laying hens. Several rows of cages are mounted in relative stepped-back ascending sets to maximize the number of cages and fowl to be accommodated. Service aisles are provided between cage rows.
Highly automated feeding systems are now offered to feed the fowl so caged and housed. In one successful feeding system, feed is received from a remote source and is deposited along a trough feeder conveyor mounted adjacent the sides of a row of cages. The feeder trough is mounted so as to permit the chickens to obtain feed by reaching through the cage bars and into the trough.
Until now, such feeders could not be used effectively with small or immature chicks. If the trough were mounted at an elevation any considerable distance above the cage bottom, the small chicks could not reach the feed. Alternatively, if the feeder trough were mounted at or near the cage bottom, the immature chicks could reach the feed with ease, but as the chicks grew larger and matured, the birds became able to rake or toss feed out of the trough feeder, thereby wasting feed and necessitating laborious clean-up operation. Repositioning the trough feeder at successively higher levels as the birds grew up proved impractical, since this action necessitated corresponding adjustments to other parts of the feeding system.
For this reason, it has been common practice to mount the feeder trough at an elevation sufficient to discourage or inhibit mature birds from raking or tossing feed out of the feeder. When small chicks or immature birds are introduced into the cages, they have been fed by laying paper or other flooring within the cages, and then providing quantities of loose feed upon the cage floors for the birds to consume.
Feeding the small birds in this manner is not entirely satisfactory. This procedure requires the use of a costly feeding cart traveling along the service aisles or some other feed dispenser. Feed is inevitably wasted as the small birds inadvertently kick the feed surrounding their feet out of the cage. Moreover, the feed on the cage floor is inevitably spoiled by the natural elimination of the caged birds. Further, during the period when the fowl are relatively immature, the trough feeder remains unused and is idle.
It is therefore the general object of the present invention to provide a trough feeder mechanism which can be used to feed caged fowl of any age. More specifically, it is an object to provide a trough feeder which can be used to feed adult birds as well as chicks even one or two days old.
Another object of the invention is to provide a trough feeder for use with both adult birds and immature chicks which inhibits the using birds from raking or tossing feed out of the conveyor.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a trough feeder for use with baby chicks which prevents the chicks from spoiling the feed with natural elimination or otherwise wasting it.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a feeder which will eliminate the necessity of placing feed upon paper or other flooring material within a cage. It is an associated object to eliminate the machinery, labor, and mess attendant upon such a procedure.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent upon reading the following detailed description and upon reference to the drawings. Throughout the drawings, like reference numerals refer to like parts.